Re: free programming language

["Thomas D. Ward" <tward@bright.net>]

Hi, I certainly agree here. Basic is not a good choice. Perl might be a 
better language to try. At least it offers some good programming habbits, 
and is a modern language to boot.
I started out by learning C, and it really gave me a real pointer on how 
to program. There are vary books out there that teach c and make it as 
easy as possible to learn.
 

 On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 
jwantz@hpcc2.hpcc.noaa.gov wrote:

> Hi Greg,
> I definitely disagree.  BASIC teaches bad programming habits like 
> FORTRAN i.e. non-structured programming.  The problem with C is not the 
> language, but that most people learning C start by reading Kernighan and 
> Richie.  I have been programming in C since 1986 but it took me almost 
> half of that time to unlearn bad habits I picked up from BASIC and 
> FORTRAN.  Now, one could make a case for Pascal as your first language 
> but I really think BASIC is a bad idea.  Sure, you might be able to 
> accomplish certain tasks easier in BASIC than in C, but the time you 
> spend in learning C will make you a much better programmer in the long 
> run.
>      Jim Wantz
> On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> 
> > Since we're on opinions, in my opinion c or c++ are not good languages to begin with. I believe from personal experience that it is best to start with something like basic, and then move on to languages like c or c++ where the concepts you learned from BASIC will help you advance in higher languages faster.
> > Greg
> > 
> > 
> > On Sun, Mar 10, 2002 at 06:48:35PM -0500, jwantz@hpcc2.hpcc.noaa.gov wrote:
> > > Hi Alex,
> > > While BASIC sounds like a good starting language in my opinion it is 
> > > not.  First, it is very non-standard (no two BASIC interpreters or 
> > > compilers are alike).  Second, file i/o in most BASICs is really rather 
> > > painful.  As far as I know, the only BASIC widely used in WINDOWS is 
> > > Visual BASIC which is hardly free!
> > > 
> > >      Jim Wantz
> > > n Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Alex Snow wrote:
> > > 
> > > > I would use, and want to learn, basic, if there was a free Compiler and/or
> > > > IDE for basic under winblows.
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Gregory Nowak" <gnowak1@uic.edu>
> > > > To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> > > > Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 2:56 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: free programming language
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > How about BASIC?
> > > > > Greg
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Sun, Mar 10, 2002 at 01:25:38PM -0500, Alex Snow wrote:
> > > > > > Hi.
> > > > > > I am looking for a programming language for windows that is both free
> > > > and easy to learn for a beginning programmer.  Does such a language exist?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ---
> > > > >
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